Understanding and Modelling Canadian Urban Systems and their Climate Interactions for Resilience Building and Developing Climate Change Adaptation Measures

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It is now increasingly clear that actions must be taken soon to address the impacts of climate change by adapting and developing viable strategies and technologies that are socially acceptable and are low-impact, whether it is for harsh climates such as in the Arctic or densely populated urban regions. Ultra-high resolution climate change information that is greatly desired in many impact and adaptation studies, particularly for Canada's urban regions, is severely lacking. The proposed research will address this important and emerging need in understanding how urban environments modify weather and climate, particularly in the Canadian context, in current and future climates. My long-term research objective is to advance knowledge of urban-climate-engineering-sustainability systems to support long-term planning and management of resilient and sustainable urban engineering systems, including infrastructure. During this Discovery Grant, I will focus on the urban-climate part, as this forms the basis of my long-term plan, which is less explored in the context of Canadian cities. To this effect, four exciting scientific questions will be addressed in the short term. They are: (1) How urban-weather/climate interactions differ for differently located and configured Canadian urban regions? (2) How urban precipitation effect varies in time and space and what are the underlying mechanisms? (3) Are there any emerging regional patterns in projected changes to urban climate and weather characteristics for Canadian cities? (4) How will urban extreme hydrometeorology change, including urban pluvial and fluvial flooding, in future climate and their implications on feedbacks and interactions? The research methodology will include numerical urban climate model development and its application in climate change experiments and sensitivity experiments to understand processes and mechanisms. The proposed research will deliver a world leading, very high-resolution urban-climate modelling system and new knowledge base for adapting urban systems to a changing climate. This will be beneficial to policymakers, planners, designers, engineers, contractors and others working on climate-resilient infrastructure and will create the opportunity for multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional links needed to prepare Canada for a sustainable future. This research will constitute a significantly progressive step forward for Canada, enabling better assessments and investigations related to adapting urban systems to a changing climate, which will lead to considerable economic savings due to the substantially increased service life and performance of urban systems. One of the other major contributions will be the training of a group of highly qualified personnel, in collaboration with government, industry and consulting engineering firms, in the area of high-resolution urban climate modelling and analysis, which is in great demand both nationally and internationally.